Just Come Over by Rosalind James
Bingo Update: This is my Birthday square. Rosalind James’ birthday is July 28th. Look, you guys know the drill here. I adore this big dumb series. I know exactly how it will end before I get to the end of the first chapter, and I don’t care a whit. I love travelling to New Zealand in my mind and spending time with these characters, even with as trite and predictable and genre-fied as the stories can be. This is more of the same, so if […]
Lights All Night Long by Lydia Fitzpatrick
Bingo Update: Lights All Night Long counts as my Listicle square, since it was on our list of picks for my workplace book club. It also is the reason I went to my first book club meeting here! Lights All Night Long is a multi-timeline story of two Russian brothers, the prodigy and the fuck up. Ilya is our prodigy, a young man with immense talent for English and education and therefore a world of possibilities spread before him. Vladimir is his older brother, less […]
The Vine Witch by Luanne G Smith
Bingo Update: This is for my I Love This square, not because I love the book, but rather because I love wine. The only reason I picked this up as one of my free books from Amazon last month was because it was about a witch whose entire magical purpose was based around the cultivation and production of brilliant wine. I was dying to see how they applied magic to vinification. The result may have left me about as satisfied as a box wine, but […]
Ash by Malinda Lo
Bingo Update – This is for my Rainbow Flag square. Malinda Lo is out and proud. As an added bonus, this is also a queer retelling of Cinderella, so it’s a queer writer telling a queer story! I love a good fairy tale re-telling. Contemporary literature is rife with reimaginings, updates, and new spins on old tales told around the fire…but not all of them are good. I’m glad to say that Ash by Melinda Lo *is* good, but it doesn’t quite rise to the ranks […]
The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia (Author), Simon Bruni (Translator)
Bingo Update: This is for my History/Schmistory square. The book is, according to the publisher, “set against the backdrop of the Mexican Revolution and the devastating influenza of 1918.” I learned SO MUCH about Mexican history reading this book, even if it is a work of fiction. Every now and then a monolith that should be seen as evil does something good, even Amazon (who we appreciate for our buyhole, obviously). Amazon sent out a list of books they were offering for free for World […]
The Tethered Mage by Melissa Caruso
The Defiant Heir by Melissa Caruso
The Unbound Empire by Melissa Caruso
Bingo Update: I’m using this for the Travel square. Each of these books centers around journeying from the protagonists home city (and center of the Empire) Raverra. It takes them to other places within the Empire (Ardence, Callamorne, Highpass) as well as key locations in the invading Vaskandar (Sevaeth, Kazerath, Let, Atruin). How quickly they can or cannot travel is also plot significant, as it relates to our heroine’s ability to stay alive as well as prevent ruin of her nation. The notion of “home” […]